VIDEO: Reunited at the Lakewood Family YMCA

Sitting across from each other, Gil Quante and Cheyenne Altman had no idea they were staring at family.

Neither had reason to believe they were long-lost siblings. Quante, who owns the Forza Coffee Co. at the Lakewood Family YMCA, was starting his first day of the branch’s Journey To Freedom program. His goal to live a healthier lifestyle - along with wife Joanne - involved losing weight after 12 weeks.

Altman, one of the program’s graduates who used it to conquer her own personal demons, is now one of its inspirational coaches. Quante was her newest client.

So there they were, July 13, for Quante’s orientation. He was a tad apprehensive, seeing that his coach had earned the nickname, “The Hurricane,” for her tenacity.

They walked upstairs to a table overlooking a workout area on the branch’s second floor. Altman was ready to help Quante and his wife outline their goals.

But something kept bugging her about Quante, something that was so familiar.

“Why do I know that name?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” Quante said, assuming that his coach remembered him from a Rotary meeting or church function.

“I know you,” Joanne blurted out. “You’re Gil’s sister!”

Quante, 56, and Altman, 55, immediately made the connection. They look so much like each other, from the dimples to the nose to the big, bright eyes. They even shared some of the same mannerisms.

Estranged from each other for some three decades, the siblings believe that something brought them together that day.

“It was by the grace of God,” Altman tells Patch.

A painful journey

Pain tore Altman away from her brothers and sisters when she was a teenager.

The middle child of five siblings, Altman was sexually abused by a family member for more than a dozen years until she was 17.

That’s when she chose to leave home, and by 25 years old, she had severed all contact with her family. She married, but that relationship also became abusive, so much so that she changed her name from “Teresa” and lost contact with her daughters.

Hurting, Altman fell into a deep, dark place. She was angry and bitter. Already with low self-esteem, she became obese. A doctor’s visit convinced her that her weight was unhealthy, and she decided to enroll in the Lakewood YMCA’s 12-week program.

There, she found herself again. She lost weight, gained confidence and connected with God.

Altman loved it so much, in fact, that she became a program coach. Today, she has more than 400 clients, each of whom she knows by their journey.

That includes a coffee shop owner who was ready to change his life too.

“I’ll do my best”

Quante’s journey has its own twists and turns.

As Patch first reported, he was a co-owner of the Forza that was located , when the owners decided to close its doors.

He didn’t give up on his business, however, and he decided to apply to open at the Lakewood YMCA. Around the same time, Quante’s father passed away in New Mexico, and his son attended the funeral. There, he spoke to his other sister, Rosa, who had one request:

“I want you to find our sister Teresa,” he recalls Rosa telling him.

“I’ll do my best,” Quante told her.

Meanwhile, the YMCA accepted Forza’s application at its Lakewood branch, and the shop opened at its new location three months later.

One of the perks of the new digs was access to the Y’s services, including its famed 12-week program. Quante and his wife signed up and were scheduled for their orientation earlier this month.

At least that was the case until their coach thought she had recognized Gil’s last name.

A new family

Quante finds his sister’s strength amazing, her ability to forgive her tormentors and abusers inspirational.

Growing up, he was shielded from it all, her abuse, her pain.

Now, he can be there to help her through her pain.

“It’s new,” he told Patch last week, the same day they told their story to at least two other news outlets. “We have family in the area. My daughter, she’s never met Teresa. It’s just amazing to see how strong this woman is next to me.”

For Altman, meeting her big brother provides a new start. Patch was there when she embraced her nieces for the first time.

“A lifetime of togetherness,” she answered when asked what she was looking forward to the most. “Christmases and holidays and birthdays. I have a family.”

And neither sibling believes they were reunited by chance.